School plan flawed

Students are expected to slowly be reintroduced to the classroom from week three of term two — three weeks from now, in the week starting May 11.

The NSW Government has recommended up to 25 per cent of the school community be on campus at a time.

This is expected to increase gradually throughout term two, with a full-time return to the classroom expected from the start of term three.

Deniliquin Teachers’ Federation branch president Jessica Burton said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s examples of determining rostered face-to-face learning based on the alphabet or house colours will be ‘‘hard to put in to practice’’.

She also said leaving the details up to individual schools will create a logistical nightmare, especially in areas like Deniliquin where several primary schools feed in to the high school.

‘‘The state has left it to us to come up with the details, and that will mean a lot of different discussions between schools,’’ she said.

‘‘The Premier’s suggestions present some timetabling issues.

‘‘Using the alphabet or house groups will mean we have students from all different year groups and all different classes at school, plus those we still have to teach at home.

‘‘We can see the workload for our teachers tripling, and it also makes the continuity of learning quite difficult.

‘‘We want what is bets for our students, but for our staff as well.

‘‘Schools will be doing everything they can to make this process as smooth as possible.’’

Miss Burton said the NSW Teachers’ Federation’s preferred method of a gradual return to school is by year group.

‘‘We believe we should start with Kindergarten and Year 12 first, and then spread out from there.

‘‘This would be a lot easier to manage.

‘‘I want to take this opportunity to say how impressed we all are with how everyone is approaching this difficult situation, and to remind people that schools will never close.  

‘‘The Premier has suggested 25 per cent of the school at a time, but we’re never going to turn any children away if they need to come to school because their parents or carers are essential workers,’’ Miss Burton said.